The project, financially supported by the United Nations and European Union, may help control poppy cultivation in the province.

Public Health Director Dr. Ahmadullah Faizi said 120,000 people in Kandahar were addicted to drugs -- a threat to society that needs to be addressed urgently.

He said the most dangerous news was that due to drug addiction 102 people had been diagnosed with AIDS in Kandahr. In addition, there is no proper facility for the rehabilitation of addicts.

Mohammad Nabi, who treats drug addicts, said more people had become addicted to drugs. Most of the addict hail from far-flung areas and are illiterate.

In some cases, the junkies have also made their wives addicts. Nabi added of 120,000 drug addicts, 10 percent were women.

Residents & civil society activists

Ahmad Shah Sayar, a civil society activist, said according to statistics from the Counter-Narcotices Department, 50 percent of Afghanistan's poppy was cultivated in Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar and Farah.

He called widespread poppy cultivation a threat to Afghanistan and the wider region. Sayar said if the number of three million addicts in the country was true, each one spent $1 on buying drugs. It is a big loss to the economy.

Residents said the cultivation of poppy and use of opium represented a knotty problem for the Afghan society, which was already facing a whole host of other issues.

Taj Mohammad, a resident of Kandahar City, said his brother had been addicted to drugs. Despite repeated rehabilitation, he could not quit narcotics.

Mohammad said his brother initially started using hashish with friends. In the next step, he started to consume other drugs. The number of rehabilitation centres in Kandahar City is insufficient.

Taj added there was need for slandered drug rehabilitation centres in Kandahar at the zonal level. He called for intoducing new techniques to prevent rehabilitated individuals from relapsing into addiction.

Security Officials:

Col. Muhsenullah, in charge of counter-narcotics police, in Kandahar said efforts had been stepped up to prevent smuggling of drugs and more security arrangements had been made in airports and dry ports of the country.

He said 53 big and small smugglers had been arrested and referred to the attorney office for investigation this year.

The poppy eradication drive this year could no completed while the illicit crop was grown on 40,000 hectares of land. The counter-narcotic department could flatten only 72.5 acres crop of poppy.

Ten percent increase noticed in the growing of poppy in the county this year.